20181204 – How culture drives behavior – Azish Filabi /Caterina Bulgarella

Regulators in the United States and the United Kingdom are increasingly focusing on corporate culture as a key element of an effective compliance program. For instance, since 2004, the US Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations states explicitly that the objective of compliance programs is to “promote an organizational culture that encourages ethical conduct and a commitment to compliance with the law”.  Besides, corporate culture in financial services has been recognized as a fundamental cause of the conduct failings that have occurred within the industry, lessening consumer protection and harming markets integrity.

In Spain, the State attorney General – Circular 1/2016 on the criminal liability of legal persons under the reform of the Criminal Code made by Organic Law 1/2015, states that the purpose of compliance programs is not to avoid a criminal sanction but to promote a genuine corporate ethical culture.

Precisely, in 2016 and 2017, a team of researchers collaborating with Ethical Systems(a research collaboration housed at the NYU-Stern School of Business,) worked together to determine the appropriate constructs for what constitutes ethical culture. During this session, attendees will be able to know about the conclusions of those studies, having access to an international perspective in the field. The learning objectives of this sessions will be:

• Understanding corporate culture as a critical driver of ethical behaviour
• Identifying the organizational elements firms need to focus on to build an ethical culture.
• Understanding why a corporate culture measurement is a key tool for better understanding the drivers of behavior in firms and contributing to compliance programs effectiveness.